In the last game of the season, the Mavericks (unfortunately) beat the Grizzlies, 100-93, in a game they could have stood to lose for some lottery positioning. Such is life. Nicolas Brussino had himself a night, leading the Mavs’ scoring effort with 15, and Dwight Powell and Nerlens Noel had 12 and 10, respectively. Pretty balanced effort from the B squad.
The Mavs end the season with 33 wins. That’s a weird sentence to type. But it was a fun season in a lot of ways that didn’t involve wins and losses. One last recap for the 2016-17 season, for old times’ sake, from your managing editor who is giving the rest of the staff the night off.
Dallas rested guys and that's a good thing
Dirk Nowitzki, Wesley Matthews and Harrison Barnes didn't make the trip to Memphis, and that's a good thing. With the last game coming on the second night of a back to back, there was no reason to risk any sort of injury at all in a meaningless road game. Devin Harris sat early in the fourth. Seth Curry was obviously out for the season already.
Harrison Barnes played 80 games this year! EIGHTY!
After a fun Fan Appreciation night at American Airlines Center last night, with Dirk addressing the home crowd, all the Tony Romo hoopla, etc., those guys deserved one fewer plane trip. Better to let those guys start their offseason early and get the young guys in. Speaking of...
The young guys got a lot of burn
With a handful of the vets not even making the trip, the young guys got extended looks. And they managed to keep it close against the Grizzlies' A team for almost the whole game, which I hope says a little something about how nice it is to have a younger team, and how much they all hustled with the chance at extended playing time against the best of the best.
New Mavericks acquisition DeAndre Liggins saw 24 minutes and finished with eight points and seven rebounds. I'm not sure what Dallas' longer term plan is with him -- maybe they just wanted the body for the last game -- but he looked fine?
And Salah Mejri hit a three! (His first ever!) And Jarrod Uthoff hit a one-legged fade! And A.J. Hammons played the whole fourth quarter!
The Grizzlies really had nothing to play for either, granted. And Coach David Fizdale admitted he wasn't bothering to prepare for the Mavs with their date against the Spurs forthcoming. But still.
We shared our favorite moments on Twitter
I had the MMB Twitter tonight, and basically just retweeted everyone sharing their favorite moments of the season. I think Dirk30K, Yogi-mania, Harrison Barnes' season and the Noel trade won the popular vote. Go scroll through the @mavsmoneyball timeline for some great #memories, and tune in tomorrow when the staff shares their favorite moments.
We’re gonna have a lot of offseason #content for you guys, starting pretty quickly here. I know, because I have a massive spreadsheet about it all. So, stick around and don’t be shy. And let us know if there’s anything you want written!
We’ll see you in the comments as we put another season in the books and look forward to 2017-18. Love you all. Mean it. <3